Peter Koumlelis

Peter Koumlelis

Peter Koumlelis has revitalized the Villanova throwing program during his years on the staff. He is in his sixth season coaching the Wildcats men’s and women’s throwers in 2024-25 and has a group that is once again capable of making an impact in the BIG EAST and nationally. In his first five seasons at Villanova the school records in every women’s throwing event have been broken multiple times, as has the men’s hammer record. Koumlelis has coached 12 individual BIG EAST champions and 30 All-BIG EAST performers.
 
Two of Koumlelis’ athletes have been award winners at the BIG EAST Championships, including at the 2024 outdoor conference meet where Tristan Bolinsky was the men’s high point scorer to go along with being named the men’s Outstanding Field Performer after a historic championship meet. Bolinsky won gold medals in both the shot put and the hammer to go along with a runner-up finish in the discus. He scored 29 points at meet, part of a 51-point overall performance by the men’s throwers at the championship.
 
Bolinsky became only the second men’s thrower in BIG EAST history to be a double winner in the shot put and the hammer in the same year. He is also just the second men’s thrower in conference history to own career outdoor titles in the shot put, the discus and the hammer regardless of season; Bolinsky was previously the 2022 discus champion. His championship mark of 58.56 meters in the hammer also set a new school record, making him the second athlete in three years under Koumlelis’ tutelage to further the Wildcats standard in that event.
 
At the 2022 indoor BIG EAST Championships, women’s thrower Sade Meeks became the first thrower in Villanova history to be named the Outstanding Field Performer at the BIG EAST Championships. She earned that distinction after winning the shot put title and finishing second in the weight throw at the conference meet. She was also the Wildcats first ever women’s All-BIG EAST performer in the weight throw. A graduate transfer who spent only one year at Villanova, Meeks nevertheless holds the school records in the weight throw (20.88 meters), the hammer (59.38 meters) and the shot put both indoors (15.50 meters) and outdoors (15.26 meters).
 
Koumlelis has coached five other women’s BIG EAST champions, including a trio of discus gold medalists in school record holder Grayce French (2021, 52.35 meters); Jul Thomson (2022); and Adria Retter (2024). He also mentored four-time BIG EAST javelin champion Taryn Ashby who won her third and fourth conference titles under Koumlelis’ watch to go along with setting the current school record in the javelin on multiple occasions.
 
On the men’s side, Koumlelis has coached BIG EAST champions Jadyn Anczarski in the discus (2021) and Andrew Grinnell in the javelin (2024). Anczarski was the Wildcats first men’s champion in the discus in 15 years and broke a nearly 20-year-old school record in the hammer (57.46 meters) in 2022 which was eventually surpassed by Bolinsky two years later.
 
Koumlelis is himself a former BIG EAST thrower who competed at Connecticut during his career. He joined the Villanova coaching staff in 2019 after spending eight seasons in a similar role at UMBC where his athletes won 22 individual America East titles and six All-America honors.
 
In 2018, freshman women’s thrower Kelechi Nwanaga earned first team All-America honors with a fourth place national finish in the javelin.  She was also the America East champion in the event and was named the Most Outstanding Rookie Field Athlete at the conference championships.

Koumlelis worked with Alexios Prodanas on the men’s side and helped him earn second team All-America accolades with a 19th place finish in the hammer at the 2019 outdoor NCAA Championships.  Prodanas was an America East champion indoors in the weight throw and outdoors in the hammer.  At the NCAA East Preliminary meet in 2019, Prodanas and Manos Kamtsiklis each competed in the hammer while Nwanaga was a qualifier for the regional meet in the javelin for a second straight year.  Prodanas’ success at the national level came on the heels of javelin thrower Tony White earning second team All-America recognition in 2018.
 
Earlier in his tenure at UMBC, Koumlelis worked with standouts Amanda Deller on the women’s team and Vincent Rentzsch on the men’s team.  Deller was coached by Koumlelis during her final two collegiate seasons and wound up her UMBC career winning America East titles in the shot four consecutive years both indoors and outdoors.  She was named the Most Outstanding Field Performer at the America East Championships three times under Koumlelis’ watch, including at the 2013 outdoor conference meet and the 2012 and 2013 indoor championships.  Women’s shot put champion Ozi Ekodobi won the honor at the 2016 outdoor meet.
  
Rentzsch burst onto the collegiate scene in 2013 and was selected as the Most Outstanding Rookie at the 2013 outdoor America East meet.  He was the javelin and decathlon champions as a freshman and went on to win two more conference javelin titles in his career.  Rentzsch broke the school record in the javelin six times during his freshman season and was a qualifier for the NCAA Championships in the javelin in 2015 and 2016.
  
UMBC had plenty of success as a team while Koumlelis was on staff and the Retrievers were named the Coaching Staff of the Year four times at the America East Championships (2013 and 2014 men’s outdoor; 2013 and 2015 women’s indoor).
  
Prior to UMBC, Koumlelis worked at Springfield College from 2005-08 and at Hartford from 2009-11.  He coached numerous national qualifiers and Division III All-Americans at Springfield, where his student-athletes earned multiple All-Division III New England, All-Division III ECAC and All-New England honors.
 
Koumlelis competed in the weight throw indoors and the hammer outdoors at Connecticut.  He earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2003.